She had gone limp, her eyes huge. She stared at him, really seeing him, and he glared back at her and let her see everything he was. Shock became eclipsed by fear in a thunderstrike of recognition.
It was about fucking time.
There were voices coming from the road. The humans, calling for their escaped prey. “Hey, Raven! Come on! You’ll die out here! Don’t be stupid!”
Kane understood every word, save one. “Raven,” he murmured, and the female in his grip eyed him warily. “That’s you, isn’t it?”
She didn’t answer immediately, but at last, she nodded.
Kane watched the humans pace around the edge of the road. The lights of the groundcar were still on; they searched slowly, but they were coming this way. He glanced back at his female, considering his options.
“If you try to run from me, I will kill you,” he said finally. “If you warn them that I am here, I will kill you. Now. I’m going to let go of you, and you are going to want to run.” He leaned close to her, close enough for her to see the points on his teeth, if she were so inclined. “And you are going to want to fight that urge, Raven, because I’m much faster than you are. And I’m in a really rotten mood.”
He released her.
She stood there.
“Where are you?” one of the humans shouted. It sounded like Kane’s wasn’t the only temper fraying here tonight. “Bitch, are you really this stupid? You’re going to die out here!”
“Go to them,” Kane ordered, and slipped back into the shadows.
She did not react right away. She seemed frozen in place, her eyes like pools of starry night as she watched him go. Just when Kane had decided that she wouldn’t move at all, that he’d managed to fuck up another female just like the yellow-haired one, she raised her voice and called, “I’m over here!”
The humans both turned in her direction, and Raven went towards them, her eyes darting back to the trees where she no doubt thought Kane was hiding, never realizing that he kept pace with her as she returned to the groundcar.
“I’m right here,” she said again, stepping out onto the roadside. She even tried to smile as the male humans advanced on her. “Got carried away, I guess.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” one of the males said angrily. “You almost broke my nose, you numb cunt.”
“Hey, come on,” said the other, more placating if less sincere. “Lighten up. I got kicked in the balls and I’m still smiling. You just owe me a little more, right, Raven? Come on. Let’s get in the car.”
All their attention was fixed on Raven. Neither one of them glanced around as Kane came up behind them. He caught the largest one, pulled him back, and tracheated him in one swift motion. The second human kept walking for a few steps, still making his coaxing noises at the female he was trying to trap. Not until the silenced human hit the ground, rasping and clawing at his open throat, did he turn around.
Kane was ready for an attack, but did not anticipate the human’s choice of target.
“You set us up!” the human shouted, and lunged at Raven.
She was quick, dodging the punch he aimed at her and taking it on the shoulder instead of the eye. And then, to Kane’s astonishment, she attacked back, laying the human’s face open with her flimsy claws and then kicking him in the groin. She spat on the male’s face when he dropped to his knees, and yelled, “That’s for calling me names!”
Urak’s ghost spoke up in his rough, amused whisper, ‘Boy, you could not have picked a worse slave if you’d custom-ordered one from the unsuitable-slave store.’
There were things Kane needed to say to her, and things he needed to do before the sun rose and started its hellish work on him, but he put those things aside for now. It was time to make a few things clear.
Kane stepped over his muted human and got a handful of the other male’s hair. Raven gave him room, breathing hard, now directing her furious gaze at him as well as at the fallen humans. Kane didn’t mind. He wanted her to be looking at him.
He hooked the claws of one hand under the knob of bone at the base of the human’s skull and broke it off with a wet crack. He didn’t take his eyes off her; if she ran, it would be now, and he had to be ready.
The female paled, so rapidly and so completely, her face almost seemed to start glowing. She gave back a pace, her eyes huge as she stared at the chunk of bone in his hand, but she didn’t run.
Kane grunted and tossed the chunk of bone to the ground between her feet. She backed up again, bumping hard into the side of the groundcar, and clapped a hand to her mouth.
“We need to have an understanding,” Kane said again, and slung his pack off his shoulder. He took his harvester, loaded the first empty ampule, and took what he needed from the human’s exposed brain. Several drops of pale liquid collected in the bottom of the ampule, and Kane ejected the spent gland. It struck the side of Raven’s leg and she slapped at it with a coarse crowing sound. Kane waited until she was done brushing and cleaning at her hands, and then quietly said, “Bring me the other one.”
She looked at him, her eyes wide.
Kane waited, silently counting the seconds until she obeyed. Thirty-three in all. She was going to need some serious training.
She went to the muted male and tugged at his clothing ineffectively. After a few stops and starts, she got a good grip on his arm and dragged him, still weakly struggling, over to where Kane waited.
He harvested the male, held the vial up to the light of the groundcar to assess its volume, and then packed it away. Calibrating the computer to accept human readings was the work of mere seconds this time around, and then Kane was ready. He looked at his female. “Come here,” he said, and snapped his fingers.
She clasped her hands together, shifting her weight from foot to foot, and finally came.
The instant she was within reach, Kane exploded up from the ground, grabbed her by her throat and threw her violently against the roof of the groundcar (but not too violently, oh no, even Kane could be careful). He put his face right next to hers and snarled, “Do I look like I enjoy waiting?”
She screamed, kicking and thrashing blindly at him.
Kane punched her in the stomach (but carefully, oh so carefully), and she arched away from him, making a gasping, retching sound. He thumped her head once on the groundcar’s roof, and then said, “Do I?”
“No!” she managed to say. Her hands were on his chest, half-clutching and half-pushing.
He set her on her feet and went to stand in the light of the groundcar. He faced her grimly and snapped his fingers as he dropped to one knee.
She came, but not eagerly, and tried to resist him when he closed his hand around her wrist. He punched her in the belly and yanked her down when she barked out her breath, flipping her as she fell to catch her legs in a vise of his. He twisted one arm behind her and reached into his pack for the scanner.
She went still as death at once. “What is that?”
“I need to look at your blood,” he told her, and inserted the tip of the scanner. “You’re no good to me if you aren’t clean.”
She watched the blood collect through the clear sides of the scanner, her face white and plainly frightened. “I don’t really have that stuff I told you,” she whispered.
He made no reply, but he did let her slide out of his grip and sit down on her own power as he watched the monitor. At last, an electronic chime sounded, the ready-mark changed from gold to green, and letters spilled out in orderly rows. Kane read, his eyes narrowing.